Critical Play: Mysteries

Life is Strange

I decided to play Life is Strange, a mystery, walking sims game. The game follows Max, a student, who has a vision at the beginning of the game that shows something disastrous happening to her town in the near future. As the game continues we are left in the dark as to why Max knows what will happen and what she can do to stop it.

After this initial reveal, Max is at school and witnesses a shooting. After the trauma of the shooting, she realizes that she has the ability to rewind time and redo actions. As the game continues, Max speaks to other students, including her friend Chloe and it becomes apparent that Max’s choices have an effect on how the game plays out. Although, what seems like the right action at the time doesn’t always have the best outcome. This leaves us wondering what would have happened if the other action has been chosen. We can see the mystery woven into the narrative because even though it seems as though Max is just going about her day, it becomes apparent that there’s more to the story.